You can use any specie of pepper/chillie as long as it is dried and ground.
I used a combination of one red onion and one white onion.
About two cups of palm oil (red oil) to make my ewa agoyin (pepper sauce).

Step 1
Slice half of the red onion and combine the remaining half with the white onions, pepper, a cup of water and blend.
You get this:

Step 2
Set your cooking pot on heat, add the two cups of palm oil and allow to heat but don’t let it bleach. About 3 minutes should do it. All through the cooking process you don’t let it bleach. the red color is just what set’s it apart from the regular tomato stew.
Step 3
Once the oil is heated you can add the sliced red onions.

Fry the onion for about 3 minutes before adding the ground pepper/chillie, onions and water combination

Step 4
Now you fry. This pepper sauce is not like the regular tomato stew so you would be frying for the next 15-25 minutes. In no time you will notice the sauce drying and turning dark. if it is not dark, it’s not ewa agoyin sauce.

You need the pepper to fry till it takes on the form and texture of small pebbles, or grainy like, like sand. So you would spend the next few minute in the kitchen stirring this sauce.

Partly the reason we use the wooden spoon. I think it does a better job than the regular cooking spoon. lots of splashes will occur at first, it dies down with time.

The sauce is already turning dark, we are not yet there but we would definitely get there.

By this time, your kitchen should have been enveloped by the wonderful aroma. If your neigbours are from Yoruba, they should be gathering together already.

Add a cube of seasoning and salt to taste. Fry for another 3-4 minutes and you are done with the making of ewa agoyin (Yoruba pepper sauce).
It should be dried but not burned.

Subscribe Below to Receive My Free Weekly Recipes.

I am Chy Anegbu, welcome to my food blog. I share all my secrets on this blog. I am the best-selling author of the Ultimate Nigerian Cookbook, the rice eBook and several other products used for making Nigerian foods.

Comments

Interesting! Well done, Aunty Chy. Cooking is life – bae! LOL…
I read through the recipe and I was salivating as I read. You know why? Beans is my favorite! However, permit me to make a few corrections.

1. ‘Ewa Aganyin (Agoyin)’ is so called, because it’s an Aganyin recipe. Ewa is Beans so ‘Ewa Aganyin’ is Aganyin (people) beans’, just like ‘Ghana Jollof’.
2. The oil for Aganyin, traditionally, is bleached. This makes the oil turn black and very light so that it melts in the beans when served.
3. The pepper for Ewa Aganyin sauce has a formation. Haha.. Dried cayenne pepper seeds, ginger and garlic. A ground* combination of these form a grey- coloured paste that is then fried. I know this because while growing up, we used to buy this paste when we wanted to make the sauce. However, for inaccessibility to this paste, chilli pepper is a good improvization. Have you tried fresh habanero pepper, one or two hard tomatoes and red onions before? You will love it! Just blend and fry with the same procedure but it doesn’t have to be black. If you do try it, please let me know your feedback.
4. Red onions is more preferred than white onions when making this sauce. And to give it a more ‘Aganyin-ic’ experience, slice the onions (not in large quantity though), don’t chop it. When the oil is bleached, pour in the onions and keep stirring till it turns brown (not translucent). In the end, the onions should be black – and it’s usually tasteless, except for the oil it may have soaked.

* I used ‘ground’ because the Aganyin women used the grinding stone and not the mill or a blender. That way, they can get a perfect paste texture.

The cooking procedure is pretty much the same.
Well done ma’am. You are doing a very great job.

Well done Chy. Good work you’re doing highlighting this great meal. I remember with pleasant nostalgic feelings EE’s Agoyin in my younger days in Lagos.
However, I don’t think Ewa Agoyin is a Yoruba recipe. I think it originated from the Agoyin people from Togo, who lived in Lagos at the time. But of course it has become a very popular recipe in south of Nigeria.

Recent Comments

I am a Nigerian living in Liberia. Even though I have lived in Liberia for more than thirty-five years, I still eat only Nigerian and Ghanaian foods cause I was born and schooled in Ghana. My wife is Liberian but she has taken the trouble to learn to cook many Nigerian foods.
You can imagine our excitement when we discovered allnigerianfoods.com . My wife is ecstatic!!!! It is a wonderful treasure, Thank you for this wonderful gift. - Adonis Raji

Honestly my soul bless and appreciate you for this site you created… I was jus taught how to make normal recipe but this site has really done me good. I just got married and I just joined this group a month ago and have learnt how to make a lot of food most especially I love making fried rice because it has now become my hubby’s best. This site is very explanatory with every details been real.. Thank you! - opeoluwa